Anakin Skywalker would lose his fucking mind.

After having JUST seen his padawan walk away, this twenty-one/two-ish year-old KID watches his second-in-command-

Rex, who has been at his side since the start of the Clone Wars and wouldn’t even shoot KRELL for crying out loud-

Walk up to a Jedi general and shoot her point-blank in the middle of a battle.

Then, he’s having seizures and talking about how “good soldiers follow orders” whenever he so much as looks at a Jedi.

There would be no “he must have had some kind of breakdown”-

Anakin would take one look at this and decide, “okay, someone has DONE SOMETHING to my boy and there will be HELL TO PAY”.

And when someone mentions it might be a virus of some sort and that Rex’s condition is deteriorating?

Anakin’s not leaving that shit up to chance!

After the Hardeen Arc and Ahsoka’s departure, Rex is—with the exception of R2, Padme, and fucking Sheev—the best friend this boy has.

Anakin’s flying the fucking ship, and he’s giving the Millenium Falcon’s Kessel Run a run for its money as he gets his captain to Kamino.

Fives is sitting in shotgun and white-knuckle gripping the dashboard for the entire fucking flight.

Kix, Tup, and Jesse are watching over Rex in the back, and Kix is *this* close to giving Jesse and Tup a sedative.

*cue R2-D2 scream*

…

Because come on.

Tup is one thing.

Anakin cares about all of his troopers, we’ve seen that—but if someone tells Anakin that a young trooper he doesn’t know too well yet has had a breakdown, he might believe that.

Tup’s first appearance was Umbara. That was his first campaign. Anakin might understand that it did some damage, took a toll even with that “designed to withstand any stress” talk.

Or if someone says “virus”, Anakin would be like “okay, that’s beyond my control—let a doctor take over”. He cares about Tup and wants to help, but it’s not an attachment quite yet.

Rex would have been biologically twenty to Anakin’s nineteen at the start of the Clone Wars, and these guys have been through Hell and back together.

We saw in the first movie, at the Battle of Teth, that helping Rex and his soldiers was Anakin’s FIRST concern until Ahsoka convinced him that the mission came first.

And it broke his heart.

Rex is Anakin’s second-in-command, his partner, his brother, his friend. They both fought, struggled, suffered.

They both met and lost Ahsoka.

Anakin wouldn’t lose him too without a fight.

We were robbed of Anakin’s reaction at the end of the Umbara Arc, ROBBED.

We were robbed of Anakin’s reaction to seeing Obi-Wan and Rex at the end of the Zygerria Arc, ROBBED!

…

Anyway, they get to Kamino.

Anakin, who is beyond mother henning at this point (and the rest of his soldiers would find it hilarious if they weren’t so worried for their captain), sticks around.

He lets any calls from Master Tiplee go straight to voicemail.

The council is losing their shit (except for Plo Koon, who is observing ✨respectfully✨).

Aayla doesn’t approve of attachment, but… she does wonder what she would do if it was Bly.

Obi-Wan isn’t even surprised, and he promises to keep Cody updated with any news regarding his brother.

(Cody has the entire CC Squad group-chat in a panic, because WHAT THE KRIFF IS WRONG WITH REX?!

Wolffe is getting double the updates because he’s texting Plo, who is trying to help calm him down a bit.

Bly and Monnk are also reaching out to Aayla and Kit, half of the Jedi council is texting during the meeting.

Fox, who is so tired from running this fucking planet that there has to be several cosmic events occurring at once for him to be aware enough to form an “emotion”, is pulling his prematurely gray hair out.

Seriously, this man is biologically twenty-four/five/six-ish at the time of this arc—let him sleep, let them all sleep-)

Shaak Ti does her best to try and calm Anakin down as the examination begins.

That all goes out the window the second Nala Se suggests killing Rex to perform an autopsy.

We now have a pissed-off Anakin Skywalker-

And a Fives, Jesse, Tup, and Kix who have come too far to do anything but “ride or die”-

Barricading themselves in an examination room with a feverish captain who wants to kill their general-

And a scared little med-droid-

And probably R2-D2 too, because he’s also the king of “ride or die”-

Full Les Misérables style.

There are six of them (and Rex and AZI) in this little room, and they are ready to take on all of Kamino in a blaze of glory.

With their blasters set to stun, full “Victory and Death” style, of course.

Honestly, we were ROBBED!

By canon. Damn it.

Anyway, because Anakin’s not fucking around, he has AZI run all of the tests and has him remove what looks like a fucking tumor in his captain’s head IMMEDIATELY.

Thankfully, Rex’s health has not deteriorated enough at this point because of Mother Hen Anakin’s rushing. He survives the procedure.

Now, Anakin wants to know what the fuck this thing is and why it brainwashed his captain.

Because CLEARLY, Rex is “fine” now.

If we can take shaken, wondering what the Hell just happened, and questioning his autonomy as “fine”.

Get this man a hug.

Nala Se goes into her whole “inhibitor chip” explanation.

Anakin learns that every clone is implanted with one of these chips at a young age to make them more “docile” and “obedient”.

And Anakin fucking Skywalker, born on Tatooine and sold into slavery with his mother, is not having any of that.

He wants to know why the malfunction of a chip resulted in Rex being forced to obey an “order” to kill Jedi.

And he takes the soldiers , AZI, and R2, and—being the technologically-savvy, rule-breaking son of a gun we know he is—looks into the chips some more-

Probably in Nala Se’s private labs—“hi, kid-“—

And he finds all of the secret orders imbedded into the chips, learns that they can completely override the clones’ free will at a vocal cue, and-

Surprise, surprise-

He learns that the Sith played a hand in this, because that recorded conversation’s with fucking DOOKU.

So, naturally, Anakin busts out of Kamino with his boys and brings all of this evidence directly to the council because he’s tired of Nala Se’s shit and doesn’t wanna waste time in a debate.

He’s impatient. We know this.

At this point, every member of the council has a migraine… but then they see what he’s got and flip the fuck out.

“Hey, troopers! How’s about a free, mandatory brain surgery?!”

(The CC Squad group-chat is on fire.

Fox is having an existential crisis because he’s been having constant headaches, memory lapses, and violent thoughts regarding the chancellor.

Bly gently tries to tell his vod that all of those things are likely because he hates his fucking job and never sleeps.

He’s only right regarding about half of the headaches and the “violent thoughts towards the chancellor” part.

Everyone’s just glad that Rex is alive, but they’re wondering what the Hell is going on.)

…

As the clones start getting their chips removed en masse around the galaxy, Anakin goes to Chancellor Palpatine with the Conspiracy Squad™️ to explain everything.

Fox is there because he wanted to check on his brother personally, even though being around the chancellor makes his skin crawl.

As Anakin explains the situation and the actions being taken, the color drains from the chancellor’s face and his expression darkens.

The room gets cold.

And it occurs to Anakin… who is, by no means, an idiot… an order to declare the Jedi as traitors and wipe out them out?

Yes, a chip was implanted to make sure that the soldiers would follow through once an audial cue—an order, “execute Order 66”—had been given-

But who could get away with that?

Or rather… who would even have the ability or authority to even do that?

Likely… only the highest authority in the Republic, granted emergency powers in a period of wartime.

Anakin takes a long look at the chancellor, a man he had known since he was nine—who had watched his career with “great interest” and…

Befriended him… or groomed him, maybe…

And he thinks about how the Sith ordered the chips-

And he thinks about how Dooku once warned his master that a Sith Lord, Darth Sidious, controlled the Senate-

And he thinks about the war, all of the destruction and death-

And he thinks about Obi-Wan being made to go undercover to protect this man from a Sith assassination plot-

And he thinks about Ahsoka’s trial-

And he thinks, and he thinks, and he thinks…

And he thinks about when Rex woke up in that hospital room above Ringo Vinda, lost and confused, and he panicked when he had been told that he had murdered a Jedi-

And he thinks about how the captain he’s fought alongside for nearly three years… nearly died… trapped in his own head and being made to go against principles stronger than Anakin’s own have ever managed to be-

And he thinks about how Rex woke up after his surgery, shaken and scared, and how his brothers had rushed to comfort him… and how he had remembered, in that moment, that these grown adults were younger than Ahsoka-

And he thinks about how these troopers have never gotten a choice, and how what power they had over their lives was always intended to be stripped away by a chip. A thirteen year-old scar stings.

And igniting his lightsaber is no decision at all.

And Darth Sidious realizes that, after almost thirteen years of trying to create the perfect apprentice, he’s lost his ‘Darth Vader’.

And why?

Because he gave Anakin Skywalker, the boy who was so strong because always made everything personal, an army of enslaved soldiers and expected that to be okay.

The soldiers are wondering at this point why their general looks so livid all the sudden.

Rex is wondering why his general is looking at the chancellor like he’d looked at the Zygerrians all those missions ago.

It hits them when ol’ Sheev lights a red saber.

And they realize just how fucked-up everything about this whole situation has truly been.

From the very start, they have all been pawns.

Now, while the 501st boys are taking their moment of astonishment, we have Fox.

As previously stated, Fox requires several cosmic events to occur at once for him to experience an “emotion”.

The Chosen One defying the destiny placed before him by challenging a hidden Sith Lord for the fate of the galaxy?

You might be able to squeeze two cosmic events out of there, but two is not “several”.

So, when Anakin and Sheev lock sabers, Fox does something he’s wanted to do since his second week as commander of the Coruscant Guard-

Raises his fucking blaster-

And decides that it’s a good time to empty every last ounce of charge into the Sith Lord that nearly killed his vod’ika.

“It’s treason, then.”

Sheev pulls away from Anakin to block the blasts, and Anakin—because he’s not an idiot—takes the opportunity to slice the guy in half.

And because Anakin has learned from his master’s experiences, he slices this Sith from top to bottom instead of from side to side.

On Mandalore, Darth Maul jumps out of his skin on his throne. His followers are concerned.

Fox has maintenance on speed-dial. They’ll be there in five minutes. It’s a reflex.

Get this man some caf.

Jesse throws up in a decorative plant with Kix patting his back while Fives tries to comfort Tup—he’s still new, after all.

Dismemberment takes some getting used to.

Rex is just flabbergasted by everything that’s happened in the last forty-eight hours, and he looks at his general as Anakin makes his report to the Jedi council.

Anakin keeps his posture straight and his expression calm, his fists clenched and his eyes narrowed. On a holo-call’s terrible resolution, he’ll look fine.

But in life, Rex can see that his general is shaking and that his eyes are glassy.

He’s just a kid.

…

The weeks that follow are difficult.

A new chancellor is elected.

Bail would have been flattered and honored to take the role, but he has a wife at home and could not move to Coruscant.

Padme, on the other hand, has many allies and spends most of her time on Coruscant—and she is willing to be the voice and mediator of the Republic. Her enemies are furious.

The obvious corruption doesn’t stand a chance against this force of nature with Sheev no longer pulling strings.

The reveal of all his deals and evil doings leaves the people betrayed and outraged, and they begin denouncing traitors left and right.

If Padme and her allies also uses this whole ordeal as an opportunity to bring to light plans regarding after-war programs for the soldiers of the GAR, that’s just icing on the cake.

The Separatists flounder for a while, with Dooku having been knocked off-balance by the death of his master.

He can no longer play both sides, control both sides of the board.

Within a few months, he stiffly encourages his congress to begin peace talks.

They may never reunite. As long as they agree to a pact of non-aggression, non-exploitation, and non-occupation, that will be fine.

The armies stand down.

The battle-droids deactivate or are reprogrammed to become defenders, patrollers, or public workers on Separatist planets.

They get paint-jobs based upon the culture of the planet they are situated on, and people are known to laugh at their ridiculous chatter.

Some cultures even have battle-droids that are programmed to watch over crops, livestock, or children. On Raxus, they walk toddlers to school and hold their hands as they cross streets.

Battle-droids are banned on Republic and neutral worlds. Some wounds will never heal, some damage is permanent.

The Republic frees the clones and gives them full rights as citizens once the war ends, and Kaminoan scientists are told that their treason will be pardoned in exchange a cure for the accelerated growth.

The scientists work diligently.

Anakin personally sends all of the inquiring messages whenever there’s a lull towards the beginning. The lulls cease.

Programs are created in order to create jobs and housing for the troopers.

There is much rebuilding to be done across the worlds ravaged by the war and by natural disasters that have gone unchecked in the past three years due to the conflict.

The Jedi Service Corps opens their arms to hire retired soldiers on as aids throughout the galaxy, allowing them to explore and help others outside of combat if that is their wish.

There are benefits being offered to those who adopt young clones into their families, with strict monitoring of course to ensure the children are being treated well.

Not that anyone would dare fuck with these kids. Consider all of the overprotective older siblings, and the fact that they are everywhere.

More often than not though, clones elect to raise their younger siblings on their own.

Boil decides to carry on Waxer’s spirit.

The Dad Batch is born.

The Mandalorian genes are strong.

This is the way.

Schools have opened their doors, scholarships have been offered. Training programs are being created left and right for these individuals.

Coruscant has witnessed the effectiveness of the clones as law enforcement and will pay to maintain the Coruscant Guard.

With benefits.

Fox isn’t sure if he wants to laugh or cry when he hears the words “paycheck” and “vacation days”.

Cham Syndulla is sick of Orn Free Taa’s shit and takes over, and he opens Ryloth’s doors to clone troopers seeking a new home.

The governor of Kiros offers the same, as do many of the people of worlds who feel indebted to the clone troopers.

The Wolfpack awkwardly declines a charitable offer made by the Aleena. Plo Koon finds this very amusing.

The Separatist worlds request that no Jedi or clone troopers visit without express permission. Some wounds will never heal, some damage is permanent.

…

In the wake of all this, Ahsoka is reluctant to ask her soldiers to fight one last time to help free Mandalore from Maul.

But after all this?

The soldiers know exactly how dangerous even one Sith can be.

It shakes them to their core, just knowing Dooku is still out there somewhere and that his voice still influences the Separatist worlds.

They realize the lengths these sons of bitches will go to in order to wipe out the Jedi, and they know this guy has it out for their Jedi.

He killed General Kenobi’s teacher, he’s after General Kenobi, and General Kenobi taught General Skywalker who taught Commander Tano. They know the story, they know the risk.

The clones are free, so they choose.

The 501st and the 212th both descend on Mandalore.

Maul doesn’t stand a fucking chance.

And when it comes to the Sith, the clones don’t take prisoners.

…

With millions of free, highly-trained, biologically-enhanced, and normally-aging men in the galaxy who now hate his guts out in the galaxy, Dooku learns to sit quietly and politely.

If he ever trains another student, Dooku gives them these (general) words of advice: “don’t fuck with the Jedi, because we gave them an army and then we fucked-up BADLY”.

Echo is sent back to the Republic with the best prosthetics money can by, a mountain of credits for therapy bills, an unsigned apology note, and Wat Tambor’s head on a plate.

The gesture is recognized for what it is. The Techno-Union is aggravated, but war does not reignite. Everyone knows who did it.

…

Anakin quietly leaves the Jedi Order, bowing his head with a smile on his face.

He’s brought balance to the Force, the war is ended, his soldiers are free, and he has a pregnant wife (who is relieved to have finally given up her emergency powers) at home.

He’s looking forward to being a stay-at-home dad, for a while. He’s tired.

Anakin tinkers with all of Padme’s private ships and droids and weapons, and all of those of her staff. It drives them crazy.

Obi-Wan and Ahsoka visit all the time, as do many of Anakin’s former soldiers. Some of the clones have even joined Padme’s staff as some of her guards.

Anakin keeps gently reminding them not to call him “general” or “sir” anymore. They squirm or laugh through trying to say “Anakin” and some even try to avoid names.

When Luke and Leia are born, they have SO. MANY. UNCLES.

And many aunts. Senators, representatives, staff members, citizens of Naboo, people across worlds, and -yes- even Jedi are all invested in the children.

Grampa Yoda won’t admit to being Grampa Yoda but also won’t protest to being called Grampa Yoda. It’s catching on in the crèches.

After Anakin and Padme have each had their turn…

Obi-Wan is the first to hold Luke and Ahsoka is the first to hold Leia, and then they switch.

But Rex is the first non-parent to hold both of the Skywalker twins at once.

He had been hesitating to go near them.

Rex had never quite gotten over Ringo Vinda and the inhibitor chip’s activation, always worried that the programming was still inside him and that he could hurt one of his Jedi.

Padme is having none of that, and neither is Anakin—so, at the exact same time, they both make up their minds to drop a Force-sensitive baby on this poor man.

And that’s the first picture anyone has of both of the twins together: being held by Uncle Rex.

Obi-Wan takes it, with Cody laughing at the astonished look on his brother’s face over his former general’s shoulder.

Everyone laughs more since the end of the war.

Peace suits them.

…

Uncle Fives is the fun one, but to this day he complains that Uncle Rex is the favorite.

Luke at least tries to tell him otherwise, insisting that they don’t play favorites and love everyone in their large and wild family equally.

Uncle Obi-Wan (“I’m too young to be a grandfather, Anakin!”) is proud of Luke’s negotiating skills.

Leia just smirks. She was lost the day Rex took her to the range and taught her how to handle a blaster for the first time.

How was he supposed to know that nat-borns didn’t learn when they were four? That was when he learned, after all!

He knew.

The only thing no one ever argues about is Aunt Ahsoka. No one can compete with Aunt Ahsoka, says Aunt Ahsoka.

Uncle Rex does, in fact, compete with Aunt Ahsoka. He tells better stories.

…

And the Skywalker twins grow up.

They learn from the people around them that love is a powerful thing when it is true, that it can move mountains and save galaxies, but one must be cautious.

They can protect the people they love, fight for them… but do so selflessly. Do so because it is the right and kind thing to do, not because it is what you want or need.

And sometimes, you have to be able to let go. This is something that their father never learned how to do—and though it worked out once, they had been very lucky.

A Sith Lord had nearly played Anakin Skywalker into his hands, and the galaxy had known none the wiser until the wrong clone captain’s chip had gone bad and Anakin had gone completely rogue to try and save his best friend.

Love had saved them… but love also could have very easily destroyed them, as well.

…

The galaxy is not perfect.

Anakin still struggles against the shadow, and he knows that the issue of slavery is one that needs to be dealt with on many worlds.

Padme tries to help, as does Obi-Wan.

Obi-Wan has a room in their apartments, and he tends to stay there most nights.

After the war, the relative quiet of the temple no longer agrees with him. The city sounds help. Being close to his family helps.

As time passes, they heal more. It will never completely go away, but they get better. They live their lives. They smile.

The Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems have a tense relationship in which they try to avoid each other more often than not.

The clones are better off than they were during the war. They have their own lives, many with careers and even families—but unfortunately, some still treat them as lesser.

The clones lost countless siblings in the war. There are some planets where certain former troopers will never go.

The remembrances in Mandalorian tradition are supposed to be nightly. In clone tradition, it’s monthly. They stay up all night, whispering names and sometimes just numbers.

On planets all around the Republic, the clones gather for these monthly meetings. It doesn’t matter if they served together. There’s always a time and a place everyone knows.

The Jedi and the Republic officers and fighters are welcome.

Except for Tarkin, who likely wouldn’t bother to come anyway, but it’s an unspoken agreement.

On Coruscant, the Skywalker family, Ahsoka, and Obi-Wan never miss it.

Anakin moves amongst the troopers, but he usually ends up with the Conspiracy Squad™️.

Kix gets a doctorate and works in a hospital, and Anakin makes sure to bring caf for him every month.

Obi-Wan visits with the 212th, and he settles down beside Cody. After so many years, they remain very close.

Padme smiles warmly.

Anakin, who has always seen his master as the perfect Jedi, remains hilariously confused.

Ahsoka mingles with the 501st, catching up and reminiscing about times gone by before speculating about the future.

Leia is usually with Rex and Fives, nestled between her uncles.

Luke is always with Echo from the start of it to the end of it. They’re usually completely silent, and Luke holds his hand.

Every soldier on Coruscant adores those kids, whether they know it or not.

Anything that would ever want to hurt them better be packing a pretty big blaster, because aliit ori'shya tal'din.

A lot of the soldiers, when they became citizens, took last names.

- Some just went with “Fett”.

- Some chose their starship’s name.

- Some chose the name of their squad.

- Some chose the name of a favorite place.

However, most soldiers had chosen to take the last names of generals or commanders that they had served under to honor them.

Yes, Jedi aren’t supposed to do ‘attachments’… but their soldiers don’t mind them.

…

The Jedi are completely changed.

The people of the Republic no longer trust them, as the Jedi had completely missed the fact that a Sith Lord had been in power for well over a decade and drove them into war.

Families no longer want their children to be trained as Jedi, fearing that the order will send their babies off to fight in another war and disapproving of the anti-attachment teaching.

The order has much to reflect upon.

They see how the Skywalker family is thriving, and how even Obi-Wan has changed since he started spending more time with them and less time at the Jedi temple.

By all means, Master Obi-Wan Kenobi is still the greatest Jedi most will ever know.

He follows the code dutifully, controls his emotions with meditation and patience, and acts with wisdom and reason.

But the gray hairs that the war had placed at his temples when he was in his thirties have not spread, the heavy weight that held his shoulders in a permanent slump has lifted, and the young Jedi master smiles.

And it occurs to the members of the council just how much of the burden of the war they had placed on one man—a man who lost his free-spirited but oftentimes unyielding master at twenty-five and immediately took on the responsibility of raising a nine year-old “Chosen One” for ten years before being cast into war.

Obi-Wan Kenobi never had a moment to breathe in his life—always having to succeed or please someone to survive, always having to keep moving and working. Now that he is no longer so burdened, he is thriving.

And… it is the continued friendships with his retired troopers, people in the communities of Coruscant and abroad, and the Skywalker family that seems to fuel this.

The Jedi Order comes first, but Obi-Wan Kenobi has somehow learned through the war not to fear his attachments.

It is Plo Koon the council decides to sacrifice volunteer to question Obi-Wan about this.

The Kel Dor stops the younger master in a hall one day and asks how he manages to balance his attachments with the light.

Obi-Wan merely folds his hands and replies that everyone he loves seems to die. He is well-acquainted with pain… so he is going to enjoy happiness while it lasts.

*cue a bear-hug from Clone Dad Plo Koon*

It is then that every other member of the council again realizes that they probably need to do some serious fucking work.

They need to start telling kids FOR SURE that by “no attachments” they mean “Hey, it’s okay to care about people and love them—but you just can’t put one person above everyone else in the galaxy and become selfish and possessive. Okay? Okay?!” because the mental health of the Jedi Order is SHOT.

Again, things aren’t perfect…

But maybe they start to get better.

…

…

…

Feel free to add on more and put your own spin on this!

This was just an AU idea I had and more ideas started to pop up and get put down from there!

Obviously, I went down the good path of “oh, everything going better than it did in canon” but… it also could’ve gone worse.

Rex not being there from the Conspiracy Arc onwards? That… would’ve been pretty bad.

…

I would also just like to note that, in the whole timeline I had going…

It would really, really suck to be Han Solo, however he shows up in this. 😂

Leia’s got Luke, Padme, Anakin, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, the entire Jedi Order, the entire Grand Army of the Republic and all of its allies, and all of her mother’s allies in the Senate at her back.

And Han has a modified van with rockets and missile-launchers strapped all over it that he uses to smuggle illegal goods.

This guy’s saving grace is that:

1. Intentionally or unintentionally, he keeps screwing over Jabba the Hutt. Anakin would find that hilarious.

2. He’s a good pilot. Anakin and Luke would respect that a little bit.

3. Ahsoka knows Chewbacca. The exasperated Wookie speaks for this feral human he’s carting around in the drug van.

4. He’s not a bad guy, genuinely. He’s loyal to a fault even if he can be a pain in the ass about it because he hates that he’s a sucker.

But while that might be good enough for the Skywalker boys and Ahsoka, they’ve still got Padme and three million uncles to go through.

… And Han wouldn’t make it past Padme.

…

…

…